


Distractions

by cdybedahl



Category: Chuck (TV), Good Wife (TV), Smallville
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-30
Updated: 2012-05-30
Packaged: 2017-11-06 07:26:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/416256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cdybedahl/pseuds/cdybedahl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lockhart&Gardner needs information for a lawsuit. The NSA and CIA needs the information because they don't already have it. Luthorcorp's CEO has placed the information with her girlfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distractions

**Author's Note:**

> There's a bit with slightly dodgy consent, so if you really can't stand that sort of thing at all, beware.
> 
> Also, the story has two elements that I just can't get out of my mind and which will almost certainly be present in any Smallville and Chuck stories I write: Lois is a sub and in a D/s relationship with domme Tess, and the whole Chuck gang are pretty crap spies (except that Sarah and Casey are really good at kicking ass).

Diane Lockhart and Alicia Florrick were sitting on different sides of the conference table. They both had lots of papers spread out in front of them, and they both looked up when Kalinda opened the door.  
“Ah, Kalinda,” Diane said. “Please have a seat.”  
Kalinda pulled out the chair at the top of the table and sat down. Morning sunshine was shining in through the large conference room windows, showing clearly the exhausted looks of the two lawyers. It was obvious that they had been there all night.  
“We need you to go to Metropolis,” Diane said.  
Kalinda frowned.  
“The Luthorcorp case?” she said. “I thought we were getting nowhere on that.”  
“We were,” Alicia said. “Until we happened to overhear a couple of things in the ladies’ room at the courthouse.”  
Kalinda waited for one of them to continue.  
“We think we know where the documents are,” Diane said.  
“Documents,” Kalinda said. “That’d be the lab reports on the procedure our client claims Luthorcorp performed on her husband?”  
“And others,” Alicia said. “From what we heard, all the documentation on the entire project was collected on a single thumb drive and placed with a third party.”  
“Who is in Metropolis,” Kalinda said.  
Diane put down a paper in front of her. A printout from a website, to judge from the layout. It was a presentation of someone.  
“Lois Lane,” Diane said. “Journalist employed by the humbly named newspaper The Daily Planet.”  
Kalinda looked at Diane.  
“Luthorcorp hid very sensitive documents with a _journalist_?” she said. “That seems like a strange choice for keeping secrets.”  
Diane smiled.  
“Well,” she said. “It might not be.”  
Alicia looked up from the papers at Kalinda.  
“We found a news industry gossip site claiming that Tess Mercer is or has been romantically involved with miss Lane,” she said.  
“Tess Mercer, the Luthorcorp CEO?” Kalinda said.  
“The same,” Diane said.  
“So what do you want me to do?”  
“Find the documents,” Diane said. “Failing that, get as much information as you can from Lane. Maybe Mercer has let something juicy slip. Pillow talk has a way of getting things out that people wish had remained hidden.”  
“Ok,” Kalinda said.  
She took the paper with Lane’s presentation and stood up.  
“I’ll let you know when I have something,” she said.  
“Kalinda,” Diane said when she was almost out the door.  
She turned and looked back at the older woman.  
“Not that I would presume to tell you how to do your job,” Diane said. “But apparently miss Lane is remarkably attractive, and she has a reputation for making mistakes when she gets emotional.”  
Kalinda smiled.  
“You’re right,” she said. “You shouldn’t tell me how to do my job.”

* * *

On the large monitor bolted to the wall of the underground base known as Castle, General Beckman leaned forward and looked her most serious. The spy team she was addressing all sat up a little straighter.  
“The situation is very serious,” Beckman said. “A private corporation has secretly developed technology that is years, if not decades, ahead of anything we have. From what we have been able to find out, what they have makes the Intersect look like a child’s toy. What they intend to do with this technology is unclear, but there are disturbing hints that this corporation may be influenced or controlled by interests outside the United States of America.”  
“All right,” Chuck said. “Sounds bad. What do you want us to do?”  
“Primarily, we need more information,” Beckman said. “Luckily for us, there is a chance that we can get our hands on a good chunk of it if we act fast.”  
“How?” Casey said. “Who do we need to kill?”  
“Ideally, no one,” Beckman said. “A USB drive full of information on a secret project is currently being held by a Metropolis journalist called Lois Lane. What you need to do is to copy the information on the drive without anyone finding out you did.”  
“Do we know where she keeps the drive?” Sarah asked.  
“We do not,” Beckman said. “You will have to figure that out.”  
“Oooh,” Morgan said. “A _seduction_ mission.”  
He elbowed Chuck in the side.  
“Well,” Chuck said. “I’ve had the training for that, and I passed the exam.”  
“Also, she looks totally babelicious,” Morgan said. “Damn, why can’t I get to do missions like that?”  
“Because you’re a moron,” Casey said.  
“Mr Grimes is correct that we see this as a seduction mission,” Beckman said. “Agent Bartowski will not, however, be doing it.”  
Chuck frowned.  
“What?” he said. “Why not? I’ve proved I’m up to it.”  
Beckman looked at him. Or, at least, as close as she could through the monitor.  
“You are not miss Lane’s type, Agent Bartowski,” she said.  
“What do you mean I’m not her type?” Chuck said. “I can be any type she likes! Millionaire playboy, humble nerd, plain ordinary accountant, gardener,…”  
“I don’t think you can be the type the General is thinking of,” Casey said.  
“Colonel Casey is correct,” Beckman said. “This mission will be fronted by Agent Walker.”  
“Told you,” Casey said.  
A tiny smile played over his stony face.  
“ _Sarah_?!” Chuck said. “But…! She’s…! _Seduction_ …! She can’t do that!”  
Beckman glared at him.  
“I have the utmost confidence in Agent Walker’s abilities in this regard,” she said.  
“But she’s a woman!”  
“That is the point, yes.”  
Beckman sighed.  
“Perhaps you need to ask your wife about her time with the Cat Squad,” she said. “And about Carina Miller in particular.”  
“General, _please_ ,” Sarah said.  
“Carina?” Chuck said. “What? What about Carina?”  
He turned to Sarah and looked aghast at her.  
“Not now, Chuck,” Sarah said. “Is there anything else we need to know, General?”  
“No,” Beckman said. “All the information we have on Lane has been transferred to Castle’s systems. Report back as soon as you have something, and good luck.”  
The picture on the monitor winked out.  
Chuck turned to Sarah, shock written all over his face.  
“ _Carina_?” he said.  
Sarah smiled at him.  
“You know I have a lot of history,” she said.  
“Well, yeah,” Chuck said. “With Bryce and Shaw and all that. But _Carina_? She’s a _woman_!”  
Sarah sighed.  
“I think we’ll talk about this once you calm down a bit,” she said. “See you at home later, ok?”  
She got up and walked out, somewhat stiffly.  
Casey also got up.  
“I’ll see to transport to Metropolis,” he said. “You jokers read up on the target.”  
He left. Chuck turned to Morgan.  
“Can you imagine?!” he said. “Sarah and Carina!”  
“Oh, I can imagine,” Morgan answered, his voice dreamy.  
“Morgan!”  
Morgan started and shook his head.  
“Sorry,” he said. “But, seriously. Sarah and Carina? Mee-ow!”  
“My wife had a girlfriend!” Chuck said, gesturing wildly.  
Morgan grinned.  
“Yeah,” he said. “Hey, maybe you could talk them into a threesome.”  
Chuck’s head snapped around. He aimed a death stare at Morgan.  
“Or not,” Morgan said. “Because that would be… wrong?”  
Slowly, Chuck’s expression mellowed.  
“Wouldn’t you have a problem with this, if it was you?” he said.  
Morgan shrugged.  
“It was me,” he said. “Anna was bi, remember?”  
He pointed at Chuck.  
“It may not be a romantic thing to do in a traditional sense,” he said, “but hanging out on a Hawaiian beach watching bikini-clad girls together really does have its upsides.”  
Chuck looked at him in silence for a while.  
“You lived the life on Hawaii, didn’t you?” he said.  
Morgan shrugged.  
“It certainly wasn’t the worst time in my life, I’ll say that,” he said.  
“And you think I’m overreacting to this.”  
Another shrug.  
“Kinda, yeah.”  
“My wife is going off to seduce another woman,” Chuck said.  
“But that’s work,” Morgan said. “And would you be any less freaked if it was a guy?”  
Chuck thought about it.  
“Yeah,” he said. “I think I would be.”  
Morgan sighed and got up from his chair.  
“I think you need to think about this, man,” he said.  
He edged closer to the exit.  
“Also,” he said. “There’s this. This way, she certainly won’t get pregnant.”  
He sprinted out of the room before Chuck could reach something sharp.

* * *

The clock had just struck eight on a Friday night when Lois locked her computer and left the Daily Planet offices. Clark had left in a hurry some time before with a half-mumbled excuse she hadn’t even bothered to listen to. It wasn’t as if it was going to be more believable than the hundreds before it. Some day, she was going to figure out why he did it. But so far, the best explanation she’d been able to think of was that he was simply avoiding leaving at the same time as her. Which stung in a way she couldn’t quite express. On top of that, Chloe was away doing something she’d been very vague about, and Oliver was off partying on another continent. And that was all the friends she had. If you didn’t count Tess. Who wasn’t a friend, really. She was more like a person Lois strongly disliked, but couldn’t stop thinking about and kept arguing and having kinky sex with. She couldn’t even look at Tess’ desk any more without getting aroused. Some day she’d take some time and really figure out the whole Tess thing. _Particularly_ the part where it turned her on something incredible when Tess ordered her around, tied her up and that sort of thing. Just not today.  
She walked across the deserted car park and got in behind the wheel of her car. For a few moments, she just sat there staring out into the sporadically lit cityscape. She had an urge to go somewhere, do something, but she couldn’t think of where or what. For once, she wasn’t working on a story, and she had no idea what to do. The best she could come up with was to stop on her way home to get a couple of pints of Triple-Chocolate Chip ice cream, and then spend the evening watching all of the _Nightmare on Elm Street_ movies.  
She needed to get a life.  
With unnecessary force, she jammed the car key into the ignition switch and started the car. It grumbled to life and she backed out of the parking lot. At least one good thing about keeping the silly working hours she did was that she rarely had to deal with significant traffic. As she moved out of Metropolis and onto the emptier road headed for Smallville, her mind zoned out. She’d driven that way so many times over the years that she could probably do it in her sleep. The miles vanished under the car one after another, with nothing to see but the dark corn fields on the sides of the road.  
And the blinking hazard warning lights up ahead.  
Lois snapped out of her near-hypnosis, suddenly all attention. Such lights out here in the middle of nowhere couldn’t be good. She slowed down, just in case. As she got close enough that her own headlights lit things up, she saw the car the lights belonged to and a woman next to it waving her arms. She coasted to a halt a little behind the stopped car and rolled down her window.  
“Hello?” she said in a loud voice. “Do you need help?”  
The waving woman hurried up to her. She was on the short side, wore business dress and looked like she was of East Indian descent.  
“Yes,” she said. “Do you have a phone I could use to call for help? My car just stopped, and I can’t get any reception on my own.”  
“Sure,” Lois said. “Just a moment.”  
She dug her phone out of her purse and pushed a button to light up its screen. Which said “NO CARRIER” in large not so friendly letters. Of course. If someone was going to have a car breakdown, naturally it’d happen in one of the places in between Metropolis and Smallville with no coverage from anybody.  
“No reception,” she said. “Do you have any idea what the problem is? Maybe I can do something.”  
The woman looked upset but restrained.  
“Every warning light on the dashboard suddenly lit up,” she said. “I barely managed to slow down and get onto the shoulder before it just died. Now it works enough to keep the warning flashers going, but it won’t move.”  
“Do you have triple-A?” Lois asked. “Maybe I could drive up ahead until I get reception and call for help for you.”  
“Actually,” the woman said, “it’s a rental. If I could get a ride to somewhere where I can call a cab, I’ll just do that and sort the car out with the rental people tomorrow.”  
Lois took a second look at the woman. She looked harmless enough.  
“Sure,” she said. “No problem.”  
“Thank you,” the woman said. “I’ll just get my stuff and lock the car.”  
Lois looked at her while she got a suitcase out of the broken-down car. It felt good to be able to help someone. It wasn’t as if Lois had been planning to do something useful, so giving someone in need a ride at least made her feel a bit less like a waste of oxygen.  
“Thanks again,” the woman said as she climbed into the passenger seat and fastened her seat belt. “I’m Kalinda, by the way.”  
She held out a hand. Lois shook it. Her passenger had a surprisingly strong grip.  
“Lois,” she said. “Where are you headed, by the way? Maybe I’m going the same way.”  
“Smallville,” Kalinda said. “I’ve got a meeting at a Luthorcorp plant tomorrow morning.”  
“On a Saturday?” Lois said.  
Kalinda gave her a crooked little smile.  
“Yeah,” she said. “You don’t want my boss.”  
“I guess not,” Lois said. “Anyway, I’m going to Smallville, so it’d be pretty silly to drop you off on the way and have you get a cab. Where in Smallville are you going?”  
Kalinda started digging through her purse.  
“A hotel,” she said. “I’ve got the booking papers the agent gave me here somewhere…”  
Lois frowned.  
“There are no hotels in Smallville,” she said. “Sure you don’t mean a B &B place?”  
“No, it’s a hotel,” Kalinda said.  
She pulled out a paper.  
“Ah, here,” she said. “The Alexandria Hotel.”  
“That’s in Metropolis,” Lois said.  
“Are you sure?” Kalinda said. “They told me they’d booked one in Smallville.”  
“I’m sorry,” Lois said, “but I really am sure. There are no hotels in Smallville, and the Alexandria is in Metropolis.”  
Kalinda’s shoulders sank and she sighed.  
“This really isn’t my day, is it?” she said. “I guess we’re back to me getting dropped off and getting a cab.”  
Lois thought about it. The woman was looking really tired. She toyed with the thought of offering to let her sleep on the couch, but decided not to. She was a little too wary of strangers for that.  
“Nah,” she said. “I’ll drive you there.”  
She slowed down and began turning back toward Metropolis.  
“Are you sure?” Kalinda said. “That’ll take you, what, and hour?”  
“Thereabouts,” Lois said.  
“That’s too much,” Kalinda said. “It’s Friday night and you’re a gorgeous woman, you must have plans. Parties to go to. Boyfriends to see.”  
Lois smiled. It felt bitter even from the inside.  
“Thanks for the compliment,” she said. “But no. I have no plans. I was aiming for comfort food and old horror movies. Both of which can wait. If I help you, at least I can feel that the evening wasn’t a complete waste.”  
“Really?” Kalinda said. “I’m surprised. Nobody at all?”  
Lois sighed.  
“I felt like doing something,” she said. “And there was four people I could think of who might want to join me. One’s my cousin. One’s my ex. One’s my workmate. The last one’s my boss. All of them are busy elsewhere. So, no social life for Lois.”  
Kalinda put her hand on Lois’ arm.  
“If I wasn’t so tired I’d offer to go somewhere with you,” she said. “But I need to be awake and alert early tomorrow morning.”  
“Thanks,” Lois said. “But there’s no reason you should have to suffer my misery.”  
“I doubt _very_ much that going out with you would be misery,” Kalinda said.  
Lois frowned a little. That sounded like she was being flirted with. She glanced down at where Kalinda’s hand was still resting on her arm. Ok, she _was_ being flirted with. By a good-looking woman. Who she’d met twenty minutes earlier, at most, and didn’t know at all.  
Things were looking up.  
“So, how long will you be staying in Metropolis?” she said.  
“That depends on how it goes at the plant,” Kalinda said, withdrawing her hand. “If it goes well, I’ll leave on Sunday. If not, I might be here all week.”  
They were back inside the city. Multi-colored light moved over Kalinda’s features, making her hard to read.  
“What do you do for a living, Lois?” Kalinda asked.  
“I’m a journalist,” Lois said. “For the Daily Planet.”  
“Do you ever write about Luthorcorp?”  
Lois couldn’t stop a short laugh from escaping.  
“Only every chance I get,” she said. “Why?”  
“I’m here to evaluate them as prospective business partners,” Kalinda said. “So talking to a journalist who writes about them makes business sense. Which means that taking her to the most expensive restaurant in town on a Saturday night could be put on an expense account. Conceivably.”  
“I see,” Lois said. “Well, if someone were to suggest something like that, I would be inclined to go along with it.”  
“Pick me up at the hotel tomorrow night at seven?” Kalinda said.  
“Sure,” Lois said.

Lois drove back to Smallville with a strong sense of unreality. There she’d been, driving along bemoaning her lack of a life. Only to stop to help someone, and ending up with a _date_ planned. With a woman, no less. Which was a first, come to think of it. She’d experimented in college, of course, and she’d slept with Tess more times than was probably good, but she’d never been on a proper date with another woman.  
She was looking forward to finding out what it’d be like.

* * *

Far too early the next morning, Lois’ phone rang.  
“Mmmrrrggglll?” Lois said when she’d found the phone, put it to her face and made it stop ringing.  
“Hi,” a female voice said through it. “Is this Lois Lane of the Daily Planet?”  
She didn’t recognize the voice.  
“Um, yeah,” she said. “Why?”  
“Hello, miss Lane,” the voice said. “I do hope I didn’t wake you up? I’m Sarah Walker, with the American Journalism Review. I’m writing an article on promising young journalists, and I would so like to talk to you.”  
Lois moved the phone to her other ear and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to wake up fast.  
“Could you take that again?” she said.  
“I would like to interview you, miss Lane,” the voice said. “I’m writing an article on promising young journalists, and the number of front page stories you’ve had in just a couple of years is quite impressive.”  
Walker, the voice had said her name was.  
“Me,” Lois said. “You want to interview me.”  
“Yes,” Walker said. “Today, if possible. Is there somewhere we could meet? I’m in Metropolis at the moment.”  
Lois sat up and tried to think. An interview? With _her_? In the American Journalism Review? It sounded almost too good to be true, but only almost. They did do that sort of thing occasionally, and Lois had indeed had an unusual number of front page stories. Not all of them above the fold, but still front page.  
“Um,” she said. “I live above a coffee shop in Smallville. Could you come here?”  
“Absolutely,” Walker said. “Would an hour from now be OK?”  
“Fine,” Lois said. “The place is called the Talon. You can’t miss it, it’s on the main street and the only coffee shop in town.”  
“I’m sure we’ll be able to find it,” Walker said. “See you soon, miss Lane. And thank you for doing this.”  
Lois sat staring at the phone after the call ended, trying to process what had just happened. After a minute or so, the fact that someone who could do a world of good for Lois’ career was on her way to Smallville to interview her.  
“Fuck,” she mumbled to herself and jumped off the bed, heading for the shower and praying that she had some clean and nice clothes to wear.

The Talon at ten in the morning on a Saturday was not exactly crawling with customers, and the few there were Lois all recognized since many years. So when a breathtakingly beautiful blonde walked through the door, it had to be the interviewer.  
Lois was sitting at a table by the wall, nursing her third coffee. She’d wolfed down the first two in order to wake up, but this one she could take her time to enjoy. She was considering getting a donut and calling it breakfast, but hadn’t reached a decision by the time the blonde reached her table.  
“Lois Lane?” she said, aiming a gorgeous smile at Lois.  
She had shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes and lovely red lips. She was wearing a white summer dress that not only left her arms bare and ended halfway down her thighs, it also managed to show off the delicious curves under it. Her legs were long and well-shaped.  
“Um, yes,” Lois said, momentarily stunned by the woman’s looks. “Sarah Walker?”  
The blonde sat down, still smiling adorably.  
“Yes,” she said. “Pleased to meet you.”  
“Thanks,” Lois said. “Do you want a coffee or something? The espresso here is quite good.”  
“I’ll wait until you’re done with that one and then get something for both of us, I think,” Sarah said. “If that’s all right with you?”  
“Sure,” Lois said.  
“Great!”  
Sarah took a notepad and a pencil out of her surprisingly large purse and put them on the table.  
“So,” Lois said. “How come you want to talk to me in particular? I mean, honestly, I’m not that special. There must be lots of lucky young journalists out there.”  
Sarah shrugged, a move that clearly demonstrated that she was not wearing a bra under her dress. With an effort, Lois tore her gaze away from the bouncing.  
“Statistics,” Sarah said. “Mostly. You really do have an unusual number of front page stories. There were others we could have chosen, yes, and we picked you from the candidates partly because you are by far the best looking. We will want to take pictures of you, by the way.”  
Lois wasn’t sure if she should feel insulted or flattered.  
“You want to interview me because I’m pretty?” she said.  
“No, I want to interview you because you’re a very good journalist,” Sarah said. “That you’re gorgeous was just the tie-breaker against a few others who were also very good.”  
Her smile turned apologetic.  
“We are a magazine, after all,” she said, “and pretty people do sell better.”  
Lois finished off her coffee.  
“All right then,” she said. “What do you want to know?”  
Sarah nodded at the now empty cup.  
“What you want to drink will be a good start, I think,” she said.  
“Another large coffee,” Lois said.  
“Coming right up,” Sarah said.  
She got up and walked over to the Talon’s coffee bar. The view of her from the back was just as enticing as from the front, and she had a sway to her hips that Lois couldn’t keep her eyes off. It didn’t get any easier not to look when Sarah leaned over the bar, making her dress ride up an inch or two. Just a little higher and Lois would be able to see what kind of panties she wore. If any.  
Lois quickly turned away when Sarah turned around, a steaming mug in each hand. She hoped she’d been fast enough that Sarah hadn’t spotted her staring.  
“There,” Sarah said after she’d put a cup in front of each of them and sat back down. “Where were we?”  
“We hadn’t started yet,” Lois said.  
“Right,” Sarah said. “So, what got you into reporting?”  
Lois took a deep breath and started talking.

“Wow,” Sarah said several hours later. “You’ve had an interesting life, that’s for sure.”  
“Thanks, I guess,” Lois said, her voice raspy.  
She downed the last of her cold coffee to ease her throat.  
“It wasn’t always all that fun to live through,” she said.  
“I can imagine,” Sarah said.  
She brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face.  
“Look,” she said. “I’d really like to hear even more, but you’re starting to look pretty worn.”  
“I feel it, too,” Lois said.  
Sarah leaned forward over the table. Which made her dress hang down, which in turn gave Lois a great view down its front. Sarah’s breasts might not be quite as big as Lois’ own, but they sure did look very nice. Sarah put her hand on top of Lois’.  
“I’d like to continue this later,” she said. “In a more …intimate environment.”  
Lois stared at her. Or, well, stared at her face instead of down her dress. Sarah smiled at her, winked briefly and arched her back a little to improve the view down her front. It was all Lois could manage to keep her face impassive. She’d thought Kalinda was straightforward with the flirting the night before, but this…! Also, what was it with two stunningly gorgeous women hitting on her in less than twenty-four hours? Had she suddenly started giving off lesbian-attracting vibes?  
Actually, come to think of it, that was a less far-fetched explanation than she liked. She tried to remember if she’d been close to any meteor rock lately. As far as knew, she hadn’t. So maybe it was just luck.  
“Um,” she said. “I have a date tonight.”  
Sarah removed her hand and sat up a little straighter.  
“Oh,” she said. “You never mentioned a partner, so I assumed you were free. My apologies.”  
“No, no,” Lois said. “I’m as single as they come. This is just someone I met last night. We decided to meet again.”  
Sarah’s smile widened.  
“I see,” she said. “So, maybe I can get to treat you to lunch in a couple of hours?”  
“Sure,” Lois said. “But we don’t really have any nice restaurants in Smallville.”  
“So we’ll make it a picnic,” Sarah said.  
She looked at her watch.  
“Meet you here at 1pm?” she said.  
“Yeah,” Lois said. “Fine.”  
“Great!”  
Sarah got up from her chair. She smiled down at Lois.  
“See you then,” she said, and left.  
Lois stared after her, feeling confused. How had she gone from feeling lonely and isolated to having two dates the same day, both of them with beautiful women she’d never met before last night?  
“Go with it, Lois,” she whispered to herself. “Just go with it. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something new to use on Tess.”

* * *

In a car on the other side of the street from the Talon, Kalinda sank deeper into the driver’s seat. She aimed her camera out the open window on the other side of the car, at the blonde woman who was just leaving the coffee shop. The one who’d spent the last couple of hours talking to Lois Lane. She kept taking pictures until the woman turned the corner and vanished from sight. She kept looking at where the blonde had been for a few more seconds, then sat up properly in the seat again. She dug a laptop out from a bag resting on the passenger seat, opened it up and connected the camera to it. While the pictures downloaded, she connected her phone to it and got an Internet connection going. Once all the pictures were available, she got to work.  
It didn’t take her all that long to finish. Half an hour maybe. Once she had her result, she stared at it for a few moments before she picked the phone up and had it call one of her speed dial numbers. It rang a few times before someone picked up.  
“Kalinda?” Alicia Florrick’s voice said. “What’s happening?”  
“And a good day to you too,” Kalinda said.  
She could almost hear Alicia’s smile.  
“Hi, Kalinda,” Alicia said. “How nice to hear from you. I hope you are well? We are fine. The kids say hello.”  
Kalinda smiled.  
“I’m not the only one interested in our journalist,” she said.  
“Makes sense, I guess,” Alicia said. “Do you know who else?”  
“Yeah,” Kalinda said. “That’s the funny part.”  
“Will it make me laugh?”  
“I don’t think so. I haven’t managed to find out her identity, but she’s working for the NSA.”  
“The NSA?” Alicia said. “Are you sure?”  
“Ninety percent,” Kalinda said. “They don’t exactly publish their phone book.”  
“What’s she doing?”  
“Exactly the same thing I am, it looks like,” Kalinda said. “Seducing miss Lois Lane.”  
“So they’re after the same thing you are.”  
“I guess so.”  
“Luthorcorp is a huge supplier to the military,” Alicia said. “It makes sense that they’d want to keep those files secret. So miss NSA will want to get at that USB thingy before you do. Does she know you’re there?”  
“I agree,” Kalinda said. “And I don’t think so. She does seem to have a team with her, but they’re not very good.”  
“Ok,” Alicia said. “We’ll see if we can find out anything on our end. And be careful, Kalinda. If those guys are actual spies they might be dangerous.”  
“I’ll be fine,” Kalinda said. “I’ll be in touch later, ok? I need to go eavesdrop on some people in a van.”  
“Ok,” Alicia said. “Good luck.”

* * *

Sarah Walker opened the rear door of the van and stepped inside, quickly closing it behind her again. It wouldn’t do for some bystander to spot the three men and multiple racks of electronics inside it. Once inside, she unfolded a jump seat and sat down.  
“Situation?” she said, looking at her three male colleagues.  
Morgan was carefully not looking at her. Chuck’s face combined pale and flushed. Casey smiled.  
She sighed.  
“Ok, what’s the problem?” she said.  
“You were…” Chuck said. “You were doing…  _that._ ”  
He gestured at a monitor, which was showing a clear image of the interior of the Talon.  
“I was doing what?” Sarah asked.  
She couldn’t remember doing anything odd or out of place.  
Chuck looked at her, clearly upset.  
“You were being all… _sexy_ ,” he said.  
“Well, yes,” Sarah said. “That was the point.”  
“Yes, but…!”  
She sighed. At times, she wished her husband would just grow up.  
“Not now, Chuck,” she said. “We’ll talk about this later, ok? At the moment, we’re on a seduction mission. Right now, you’ll just have to deal with that. Or leave.”  
Chuck looked petulant.  
“I’ll deal,” he said after a while.  
“Damn,” Casey said. “I was hoping you’d leave.”  
“Dude,” Morgan said. “Give the man some slack, will you? He’s having to watch his wife put the moves on another woman.”  
“Yeah,” Casey said. “And it’s a real hottie, too.”  
“Ok,” Morgan said. “How would you feel if either of them was Alex?”  
“I’d make damn sure the recordings got deleted,” Casey said. “Wouldn’t stop me from doing my job.”  
“Can we focus?” Sarah said. “We have less than two hours to arrange the fanciest picnic this town has ever seen. I want to seriously impress Lane. And distract her long enough that you three can do a thorough search of her apartment.”  
“Recordings?” Chuck said. “Oh God, there will be recordings! Video recordings!”  
“You’ve got something there for the long nights when she’s away on missions,” Casey said.  
Chuck’s head snapped around to glare at Casey. Casey’s smile grew a little wider and more feral.  
“Oh for…” Sarah said, clearly exasperated. “There will be no recordings. You three will be busy here while I’m off with her, and I will not be wearing a wire.”  
Chuck turned to her almost as fast as he’d turned to Casey a few moments earlier.  
“You won’t be wearing a wire?” he said. “Why won’t you be wearing a wire? What if something happens? You have to wear a wire!”  
“A wire needs clothes to hide it under, moron,” Casey said.  
Chuck sat totally still staring emptily straight ahead for several seconds.  
“Right,” he said. “No wire.”  
“She’s just a journalist, Chuck,” Sarah said. “Even if she does become violent, which is very unlikely, I can easily handle her. It’ll be fine.”  
Chuck’s mouth wriggled into a highly unconvincing smile.  
“Sure!” he said. “It’ll be fine!”  
Sarah rolled her eyes but didn’t comment.  
“Morgan, you and Chuck go and get a picnic basket,” she said. “Food, wine, basket, blanket, that sort of thing. You can handle that, right?”  
“Absolutely,” Morgan said. “No problem at all.”  
“And make it actual _food_ , will you? Not Cheetos and Pepsi.”  
He looked hurt.  
“Hey,” he said. “You’re looking at a fully trained Hibachi chef. It may be that I won’t be there to cook for you, but I know food. Don’t worry.”  
Sarah smiled at him.  
“Sorry,” she said. “I should’ve remembered. Anna has mentioned it.”  
“Anna?” Morgan said. “When did you talk to Anna?”  
“Oh, we email sometimes.”  
“She never emails _me_ ,” he said.  
“Anyway,” Sarah said. “Time’s flying! Chuck, Morgan, go get the food and wine. Casey, keep an eye on the apartment.”  
He grunted.  
“What will you be doing?” Chuck asked.  
She smiled at him and gave him a peck on the cheek.  
“Location scouting,” she said. 

* * *

“We’ll need another basket,” Morgan said some time later.  
They were standing on the Smallville main street, looking into the window of the local cheese shop. Morgan was holding a pretty large basket. Chuck had one in each hand.  
“We already have three,” Chuck said. “It’s already way more than they can possibly eat.”  
Morgan looked thoughtful.  
“Well, you know, we don’t really know what Lane likes,” he said. “So we want options.”  
“There are already five cheeses,” Chuck said. “Five. As well as four types of ham, seven sausages, three quiches, six types of bread, smoked salmon, pickled herring, radishes, corn chips, eight dip sauces for the chips, three kinds of crackers, five kinds of jam, two kinds of marmalade and, for some reason, a banana.”  
“Good source of potassium,” Morgan said.  
Chuck looked at him.  
“You put it there just so you’d get to do the Doctor Who quote, didn’t you?” he said.  
“I claim the fifth,” Morgan said. “Anyway, when you list all the stuff like that…”  
“You realize it’s enough?”  
Morgan smiled and shook his head.  
“We’re obviously missing dessert.”  
Chuck sighed.  
“All right,” he said. “What do we need?”  
“Not much,” Morgan said. “A pound of strawberries, a pint of cream, a few bars of high-quality chocolate and a jar of honey.”  
Chuck frowned.  
“What’s the honey for?”  
Morgan tried his best to look innocent.  
“I’m sure the ladies will come up with a use for it,” he said.  
Chuck gave him an exasperated look.  
“You had to go there,” he said. “Really?”  
“Sorry, man,” Morgan said. “Oh, and we’ll need a bottle of dessert wine too.”  
“We already have eight bottles of wine!”  
Morgan looked at him.  
“Hey,” he said. “Pairing the right wine with the right food is vital for a good dining experience. I’m going to write a cheat sheet so Sarah will now what wine to have with which food. And, if I say so myself, I think I’ve done pretty well in getting it down to only eight, well nine now, kinds of wine for all that food. The matches won’t be perfect, of course, but they’ll do for a picnic. Once we add the champagne.”  
Chuck sighed again.  
“Ok,” he said. “Let’s go back to the wine shop.”

* * *

When Lois finally gave up on getting her outfit any better and walked down into the coffee shop, Sarah was already there waiting. She was standing with her back to the stairs, giving Lois an awesome view of her long, athletic legs. Surprisingly athletic for a journalist, it suddenly occurred to Lois. She must work out a lot. Get all sweaty and flushed… Lois shook her head to clear the mental image.  
“Hi,” she said. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long?”  
Sarah turned around and gave her a dazzling smile.  
“No,” she said. “Just got here.”  
There were a few more people on the coffee house than there had been in the morning. And the one currently in the process of paying for an iced coffee looked very familiar. She frowned.  
“Kalinda?” she said.  
The dark-haired woman turned her head.  
“Lois?” she said. “Hi!”  
Sarah looked from Lois to Kalinda and back.  
“Friend of yours?” she said.  
She held out a hand to Kalinda, who shook it after awkwardly moving her coffee cup to her other hand.  
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Lois said.  
“My meeting ended early,” Kalinda said. “Apparently even Luthorcorp executives want to have weekends. Since I had nothing to do, I decided to have a look at the town, and then I felt like some iced coffee.”  
She gestured vaguely with the cup she was holding.  
“What are you doing here?” she said.  
“I live here,” Lois said. “Or, well, in an apartment above the shop.”  
“Really?” Kalinda said. “What a coincidence!”  
“So this is…?” Sarah said.  
“Oh, right,” Lois said. “Sarah, this is Kalinda, the date I mentioned that I have tonight. Kalinda, this is Sarah, a journalist interviewing me for an article.”  
Kalinda’s gaze travelled over first Sarah and then Lois. Lois suddenly felt acutely conscious about the short skirt and deeply cut blouse she’d chosen to wear.  
“Not that it’s any of my business,” Kalinda said, “but what kind of article?”  
“The interview is already done,” Sarah said. “We’re just going for a picnic.”  
“Well, then,” Kalinda said, “if you guys are also done working, maybe we could go together? I really have no plans for the afternoon and I don’t know anyone around here, so I’d appreciate the company.”  
She demonstratively looked at first Lois’ cleavage and then Sarah’s. When she spoke again, her voice had taken on a suggestive tone.  
“I don’t mind sharing, if you don’t,” she said.  
Lois’ mind instantly went were Kalinda had certainly intended. It wasn’t as if Kalinda’s outfit was all that much more restrained than Sarah’s or Lois’ own, what with the tight skirt and the fuck-me boots. Of course, she might be interpreting the signals all wrong and all that would happen with either of the women would be a couple of nice meals and some light conversation. But she really didn’t think that was in the cards. She was sure that Kalinda had just obliquely suggested a threesome. And no matter if it was a _good_ idea or not to go along, Lois knew herself well enough to realize that she’d regret it for the rest of her life if she turned it down. Also, and she felt ashamed even thinking the thought, it’d make for a way better answer when Chloe asked how she’d spent her weekend than “Did laundry and watched movies I’ve seen a hundred times before”. Not to mention how Clark would react if she told him she’d slept with two women she’d just met. He’d probably have an aneurysm on the spot.  
“I think it sounds like an exciting idea,” she said. “Sarah?”  
Sarah looked uncertainly at Kalinda for a few moments, then smiled.  
“Sure,” she said. “The more, the merrier, right?”  
“Great!” Kalinda said. “Thank you.”  
“I, um, just need to visit the ladies’ room,” Sarah said. “Back in a second.”  
She set off without waiting for a response. Kalinda and Lois followed her with their eyes.  
“I hope I didn’t upset her,” she said.  
Lois shrugged.  
“I’ve known her even less time than I’ve known you,” she said. “If she says she’s fine with something when she isn’t, may as well find that out right away.”  
“That makes sense,” Kalinda said.

Sarah had her phone out and dialing even as she locked the bathroom door behind her. Fortunately it was a proper little room, not just a stall in a larger one.  
“Yes,” she heard Casey say a moment later.  
“Please tell me you still have the video feed in the coffee shop,” she said.  
“I do,” he said. “Who’s the woman?”  
“She said her name is Kalinda,” Sarah said. “That’s all I know. Can you run a face recognition search?”  
“Running,” he said. “What’s happening?”  
“She had a date with our mark tonight,” Sarah said. “Only now she’s coming along with us to the picnic.”  
“Fifth wheel, huh?” Casey said.  
“More like third corner in a triangle,” Sarah said. “At least that’s what it looks like.”  
“Chuck’s going to _love_ that,” he said.  
Sarah winced.  
“Please don’t tell him unless you have to?”  
“No problem,” he said. “Just a moment, I got a hit on the search.”  
For a few moments, the only sound was the distant buzz from the coffee shop.  
“Let’s see…” Casey said. “Kalinda Sharma. In-house investigator for a Chicago law firm. Seems to have a bit of an FBI file…”  
He fell silent.  
“Casey?” Sarah said.  
“Walker?” he said.  
“Yes?”  
“If it does come to violence, go for Sharma immediately, and don’t hold back.”  
Sarah frowned. That didn’t sound good.  
“Is she an agent of some kind?”  
“No,” he said. “She just has history. A _lot_ of history. Come to think of it, if you get the chance, try to recruit her. She’d be a hell of a lot better than Chuck and Morgan, that’s for sure. Well, except for the Intersect.”  
“We’ll see,” Sarah said. “Talk to you later.”  
She hung up and put the phone away, then rubbed her forehead. This was getting a bit more complicated than she’d hoped.

* * *

Sarah’s car was a deep red 1960 Ford Thunderbird Convertible. It even had a Stars and Stripes flag flying from the antenna.  
“Wow,” Kalinda said. “Where did you get _that_?”  
“If you’re going to rent, may as well rent stylish,” Sarah said. “Get in.”  
Lois got in, taking the front passenger seat. Sarah got behind the wheel, and Kalinda took the seat right behind Lois.  
“So where are we going?” Lois said.  
“I drove around a bit before,” Sarah said, “and I think I found a good picnic spot. Far from any buildings, so I hope nobody will object to us borrowing it for a while. Quite pretty, and as far as I could tell nobody will be able to see us.”  
“Sounds nice,” Lois said.  
If Kalinda commented, she was drowned out by the growl of the starting engine.

As the car roared out of Smallville and the wind made conversation impossible, Lois found herself filled with an increasing sense of unreality. Vintage car, two beautiful women who obviously wanted her, a warm and sunny day, wind blowing through her hair. All happening in less than a day. It was too good to be true, too much like a dream.  
She hoped she wouldn’t wake up for a good while yet.  
“Hey!”  
Lois turned around. Kalinda was leaning forward, putting her face right next to Lois’ head. She still had to shout to make herself heard.  
“Hey yourself,” Lois shouted back.  
“Feeling good?”  
Lois looked at her. Deep brown eyes full of secrets. Strong jaw and a nose that was a tad too large for the rest of the face. Small mouth, prominent eyebrows. Gorgeous, so gorgeous. Giving in to impulse, Lois turned her head as far as she could and planted a kiss on Kalinda’s lips. There was a mere split second’s hesitation before the kiss was returned. A warm tongue pried at Lois’ lips, and she briefly let it in before she pulled her head back.  
“Later,” she shouted.  
“I’ll hold you to that,” Kalinda shouted back.  
She smiled such a smoldering smile that it gave Lois goosebumps. With an effort, Lois turned away from her and returned to looking ahead. And frowned. She knew this road. It went along the far side of the Kent farm.  
“This place you found,” she shouted to Sarah, “did it have a line of oak trees on the north side?”  
“Yeah,” Sarah said. “Why?”  
“I know the place.”  
She knew from experience that it was a good makeout spot. It was where she had first figured out she liked women as well as men, one drunken night. With Lana Lang, of all people. Both of them had made very sure not to let Clark know about _that_. As far as Lois knew, Lana had since decided women weren’t her thing, anyway.  
“Will it do?” Sarah shouted.  
Lois nodded.  
“I know the owner,” she shouted. “It’ll be fine.”  
The owner. Clark. No chance that he’d show up, really. As far as she knew he never had any reason to get out here. Maybe if he got into his mind to trim or check the oaks, but that would be a fall thing. This time of year, it was just a useless triangle of land at the very edge of Kent property. There was a cow pasture next to it, on the neighbor’s land.  
A hand landed on her thigh. She woke up from her reverie. It was Sarah’s, of course.  
“Don’t you need that to shift gears?” Lois said.  
“Not _all_ the time,” Sarah said, smiling at her.  
Well, there wasn’t any other traffic and they weren’t going fast. Lois let her head fall back on the headrest and enjoyed the feeling of Sarah stroking her leg. Which was soon joined by a pair of warm lips closing around her earlobe.  
Oh yes, the weekend was looking up.

* * *

There were four baskets. Three of them filled with food of more varieties than Kalinda could remember ever seeing in one place at one time. The fourth basket was equally full, but of bottles. Most of them seemed to be wine.  
“I sure hope you got all this on expense,” Lois said, “because there’s no way we’re going to eat it all.”  
Sarah had looked taken aback for a moment when she opened the trunk to reveal the baskets, and even if she’d rallied impressively fast Kalinda felt sure that the food shopping had really been done by her team.  
“Of course,” Sarah said. “I thought that between all of this, there should be _something_ you enjoy.”  
“And wine to go with it, whatever it is,” Kalinda said. “Very thoughtful of you. It must have taken ages to get all this.”  
She felt a twinge of amusement as she saw a flicker of annoyance pass over Sarah’s face. She knew just as well as Kalinda that there was no way Sarah could’ve gathered all this in the between her interview with Lois and when they met up for the picnic.  
“Anything worth doing is worth doing well,” Sarah said, smiling happily.  
She was a pretty good actor, Kalinda had to give her that. She picked up a couple of blankets from the trunk and handed them to Lois.  
“Here,” she said. “You take these. We’ll take the rest.”  
“You’ll take the heavy stuff?” Lois said. “That’s a bit unfair.”  
“Yeah,” Kalinda said. “But we’re the ones trying to seduce you, remember? We’ve got to impress you somehow.”  
Lois laughed.  
“Ok, then,” she said. “I’ll spread the blankets under the trees over there. It’s a good spot.”  
She walked away. Both Kalinda and Sarah followed her with their eyes. At least Kalinda did for a few moments before turning her attention to Sarah.  
“Nice legs,” Kalinda said.  
“Really nice,” Sarah said.  
As far as Kalinda could tell, she really meant it. So this wasn’t just a mission for the spy. She was at the very least physically attracted to the journalist. Which was useful to know. She mentally filed the information away for later, and grabbed one the the overfilled picnic baskets. Making an exaggerated show of effort, she lifted it out of the car with both hands. Sarah turned away from looking at Lois.  
“I’ll take the rest,” she said. “It’s my fault they’re this heavy, so I should suffer for it.”  
She took both the remaining food baskets and easily lifted them out of the trunk. Kalinda had to force herself not to show her surprise. The woman was strong, really strong. The kind of strong that took hours of workout every day to maintain. From how her muscles looked and how she moved, that workout was almost certainly a martial art of some kind. An _effective_ kind, probably, given that she was a spy.  
Kalinda added “in case of violence, cheat like a State’s Attorney” to her mental file on Sarah.  
They put the baskets down next to the blankets Lois had spread out. There was plenty of grass under them, which made them bulge in places but also made them a little softer to sit on. Or, as Lois was doing, lie on. She was on her back, staring up at the oak branches above. Kalinda sat down next to her.  
“Enjoy the view?” she said.  
“It raises memories,” Lois said.  
“Pleasant ones?”  
Lois smiled wistfully.  
“One of the first times I made out with another woman was right here under this tree,” she said.  
“Since you’re here now, I’ll assume that means pleasant,” Kalinda said.  
“It might just be that I like the way you two feed my ego,” Lois said.  
Sarah put the basket of wine next to the blanket and sat down.  
“Maybe we’re only after your body,” she said.  
“Still better than the weekend plans I had before,” Lois said. “Are you?”  
Kalinda tilted her head a little and pretended to ponder the question.  
“Let’s see,” she said. “I’m here for the first time ever, I leave in a couple of days at most and I’m unlikely to ever end up here again. So that’d be a yes.”  
“Honesty,” Lois said. “Don’t get all that much of that in my line of work.”  
She looked at Sarah.  
“Well, I do enjoy your company,” Sarah said. “But I will be disappointed if I don’t at last get under your blouse before we leave here.”  
“Modest, isn’t she?” Kalinda said.  
“Maybe I like that,” Lois said.  
“No, you don’t,” Kalinda said.  
For a few moments, the only sounds were wind through the oak leaves and the distant mooing of cows.  
“All right, I don’t,” Lois finally admitted. “What I would like, to begin with, is a glass of champagne, some strawberries and to watch the two of you kiss.”  
Kalinda looked up at the spy. She appeared slightly shocked, but hid it well.  
“Works for me,” Kalinda said.  
“I’ll get the champagne and berries,” Sarah said.

Kissing the hot spy wasn’t exactly a sacrifice, particularly not when she tasted of champagne and strawberries. Kalinda sat next to her, facing her and twisting to the side so their faces could meet. She still had a feeling that Sarah felt some reluctance about what they were doing, but since the spy tried impressively hard not to show it she chose not to pay attention. If the oh so pretty blonde _really_ didn’t want this, she could say no any time, and it wasn’t as if they’d forced her to come. Kalinda slid her hand along Sarah’s powerful thigh, which got a soft moan in response. Sarah had one arm around her, pulling them close and squashing their breasts against each other. Out of a sudden perverse curiosity, Kalinda tried to keep the kiss going for as long as possible, to see which one of them could go the longest without breathing properly. Which, after a surprisingly long time, turned out to be Kalinda herself. She broke away, impressed in spite of herself with the spy’s lung capacity.  
“Wow,” Lois said. “That was hot.”  
Kalinda smiled at her.  
“Want a closer demonstration?” she said.  
She undid another button on her blouse, to emphasize the point. Lois’ eyes flickered down to her cleavage and stayed there for a few seconds.  
“Perhaps something more substantial to eat first,” Lois said. “And a suitable wine, of course. Unless there’s some beer hidden in there somewhere.”  
“I’ll get us something,” Kalinda said.  
She turned to Sarah.  
“You can entertain our… victim here while I look,” she said.  
She reached out and pushed the straps on Sarah’s dress off her shoulders. The dress slid down, and would’ve bared her chest if the front of it hadn’t been left hanging on Sarah’s erect nipples. The effect was far more enticing than Kalinda had expected, and she nearly let out a moan herself. She definitely heard a lusty grunt from Lois. Sarah smiled.  
“I’ll do my best,” she said, making no move to pull her dress back up. Instead, she moved from sitting down to standing on her hands and knees in one feline-smooth move. That, of course, made her dress drop away entirely from her upper body, leaving it hanging off her hips and baring her breasts to the world.  
Kalinda couldn’t help staring. They more than lived up to the dress’ promise. Not all that large, perhaps, but very well-shaped and beautiful. They moved gently as Sarah made her way over to Lois and sat down straddling her thighs. Which, of course, left said newly bared bosoms pretty much right in front of Lois’ eyes.  
Lois licked her lips. Kalinda shook her head and tore her gaze away. Food. She was to find food. And, hopefully, have a dig through Lois’ handbag while its owner was distracted, to see if she could find any stray USB memories. She turned to the food baskets, only occasionally glancing back at the other two women. 

* * *

Lois looked so much like a rabbit caught in headlights that Sarah felt sorry for her. As well as amused.  
“Do you like the view?” she said.  
Lois’ eyes snapped up to meet Sarah’s, and she blushed.  
“Um,” Lois said, swallowing.  
“Hey,” Sarah said. “You can look all you want. Not only that…”  
She took hold of Lois’ hand and put it on her own left breast.  
“…You can touch all you want, too,” she finished the sentence.  
“Well,” Lois said. “You’re certainly not shy, I’ll give you that.”  
Sarah put her hands on the tree Lois was leaning against, one on each side of Lois’ head.  
“Why?” she said. “Do you think I should be? Do I have something to be ashamed of?”  
Lois put her free hand on the unoccupied breast, and gently started stroking Sarah’s nipples with her thumbs. It felt great. Sarah closed her eyes for a moment and just enjoyed the sensation.  
“Really not,” Lois said. “No shame here.”  
“There might be one thing,” Sarah said, eyes still closed.  
“Oh?” Lois said. “What?”  
“If we stay like this, I’ll leave a wet spot on your skirt,” Sarah said.  
One hand vanished from her breast, and reappeared a moment later between her spread legs. A finger ran up the length of her labia, sliding easily on ample lubrication. Sarah gasped.  
“No bra, no panties?” Lois said. “That dress and the heels is all you’re wearing?”  
“Pays to be prepared,” Sarah said.  
“Raise yourself a little,” Lois said.  
Sarah did. Lois pulled her skirt up until it was bunched around her hips, out of the way of any immediate risk of staining.  
“There,” she said.  
Sarah sat down again, on Lois’ naked thighs this time. The bare skin felt considerably better than the cloth had. A small sigh of pleasure escaped her. She really wanted to strip Lois naked and run her hands all over her skin, but she reined herself in. The point here was to give the rest of her team as much time as possible to search Lois’ apartment, so going slow was the order of the day. She leaned forward and kissed Lois, who responded enthusiastically. Lois’ arms roamed all over her, and it soon got really hard not to simply push her to the ground and rip her clothes off. She made sure to keep her own hands away from more interesting areas, since she wasn’t sure she’d be able to restrain herself if she started down that road.  
After some time, Lois broke off the kissing and pushed Sarah away. Not far, just enough that they could look at each other. Lois was flushed and breathing heavily. Sarah guessed she looked roughly the same.  
“I want…” Lois said.  
“Some food, maybe?” Kalinda interrupted.  
Both Lois and Sarah turned to look at her.  
“Not that you guys aren’t great fun to watch,” she went on, “but now I’m getting hungry. And sort of feeling left out.”  
She was lying on her side next to Sarah and Lois, head propped up on her elbow. Next to her were a number of open foil packets with various sorts of finger foods, and a couple of open wine bottles.  
Lois shook her head.  
“Right,” she said. “Food.”  
Sarah slid off Lois’ legs and sat down on the blanket. Fun as it’d be to play around with the food, it seemed likely that things would last longer overall if they ate first and returned to the sex later.  
Although hopefully not too much later.

Kalinda lay back and nibbled on a grape leaf roll, generously dipped in hummus. She chased it down with another tiny sip of really quite good wine. For the past little while the three of them had eaten in silence, all of them suddenly realizing that they really were hungry as soon as the first bit of food hit their stomachs. Kalinda had done her best to keep the other two well plied with wine, while drinking as little as possible herself. Surprisingly, it seemed to work even on Sarah. Kalinda would’ve guessed that a professional spy would know better than to get tipsy. Or maybe she had some secret trick to drinking without getting drunk.  
“Seriously, you should see her legs,” Lois said. “Sooo hot.”  
Kalinda had tried to get Lois to talk about her work, and sort of succeeded. She was talking at length about Tess Mercer, the owner of the paper Lois worked for as well as Lois’ direct boss. Which would’ve been exactly what Kalinda was after, had it not been that what Lois was saying only revealed that she had a crush on Mercer. A serious one. Which made the rumor Diane had mentioned, about Mercer and Lane having had an affair, rather more believable.  
“Deadly, too,” Lois went on. “She was attacked in her office once, and ended up kicking the guy to death.”  
Kalinda didn’t feel particularly impressed, and it looked like Sarah didn’t either. She rolled over a bit and refilled Sarah’s wineglass.  
“Unhappy reader?” she said.  
Lois shook her head.  
“Those would probably come after me, not Tess,” she said. “No, that was some sort of secret Luthorcorp business. I never found out what.”  
Lois had laid down on her back. She was still occasionally eating the odd little thing, but on the whole she – like Kalinda and Sarah – seemed to have eaten her fill.  
“Sounds like an interesting person,” Sarah said.  
“So, are the two of you… friends?” Kalinda said.  
She tried to put just the right amount of emphasis in the last word.  
“I wish,” Lois said. “Well, sort of.”  
She sounded sad, all of a sudden. Looked it too, when Kalinda turned to check. Something needed to be done in a hurry, if the mood wasn’t going to go down the drain. She already had a copy of the USB drive, so it wouldn’t be a complete disaster if the picnic ended, but she was still hoping to get Lois to say something useful. Or Sarah, for that matter. She grabbed the wine bottle.  
“Here, have some more wine,” she said.  
She stretched out her arm as if to fill Lois’ glass, and deliberately poured the wine into the journalist’s cleavage.  
“Fuck!” Lois yelled, trying to move away but mostly managing to get wine all over her front.  
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Kalinda said. “Here, let me help!”  
She put the bottle aside, got up on her knees and started undoing Lois’ blouse.  
“There’s sparkling water,” she said. “If we soak the blouse in it at once the wine shouldn’t have time to leave a stain.”  
Lois was looking down at herself, clearly upset.  
“This is my favorite bra!” she said. “Look, it’s ruined!”  
“So get it off and we’ll soak it too,” Kalinda said. “And I’ll buy you a new one. Sarah, can you get the sparkling water? And the cooler, to soak the clothes in?”  
“Sure,” Sarah said.  
She got up and headed for the car. She was definitely a bit unsteady on her feet, Kalinda noticed.  
“I’m so sorry,” Kalinda said. “I should’ve known better than to reach like that.”  
Lois sighed.  
“It’ll be fine,” she said. “It’s just clothes.”  
Her blouse was already off, and as she spoke she reached behind her back and unhooked her bra. She slid it down her arms, and her breasts came into view. For the second time in not that long a while, Kalinda found herself staring. Not only were Lois’ breasts every bit as nice-looking as Sarah’s, but they were also significantly bigger. Kalinda liked big, on occasion. Not that there’s was anything wrong with Alicia’s bosom, far from it, but when the thing was purely physical with no real emotion involved, size certainly had its attraction. She put the wet blouse aside.  
“You’re all messy,” she said. “Here, let me help.”  
Not waiting for an answer, she bent down and planted a kiss on Lois’ breast. Keeping her mouth close to the smooth skin, she began carefully licking the spilled wine off. She circled around it first, avoiding the areola and nipple until she clearly heard Lois breath deepen. Only then did she suck the already stiff nipple into her mouth and gently pinch it between her teeth.  
“Aah!” Lois said.  
Kalinda pulled back.  
“Did I hurt you?” she said.  
“Really not,” Lois said. “Go on.”  
Kalinda smiled at her, then bent back down and began to clean her other breast. A weak whimper came from Lois. To ease her distress, Kalinda started caressing the unoccupied breast with her hand, rolling the nipple between her fingers in time with her teeth and tongue playing with the other one.  
A couple of hands landed on Kalinda’s ass.  
“Two of us are half naked,” Sarah said. “Doesn’t seem fair, does it?”  
“Not at all,” Lois breathed.  
Kalinda’s belt came off, her skirt’s zipper opened and very soon after that all she was wearing below her waist was her knee-high black boots. She let go of Lois’ lovely breasts and stood up on her knees. She started undoing her blouse.  
“No point in doing things halfway,” she said as she dropped the blouse and reached around to undo her bra.  
“Couldn’t agree more,” Sarah said.  
Kalinda turned and looked at her. She was standing behind Kalinda, as naked as the day she was born. Every luscious curve was visible, as was the pale blonde tuft of hair where her legs met. Kalinda swallowed. She didn’t know what she’d done do deserve ending up in a threesome with two women this hot, but she fervently wished she’d find out so she could do it again. A lot. She dropped her bra, leaving her with nothing on except the boots.  
“…Although there’s certainly something to be said for not quite all the way,” Sarah said. “Nice boots.”  
“Thanks,” Kalinda said.  
She stood up. Sarah stepped forward so they both stood looking down at Lois. Lois looked up at them. A blush slowly spread down her throat and chest, she licked her lips and her pupils were considerably larger than normal. She leaned back and spread her legs a little.  
Kalinda smiled. If she’d known being in a submissive situation turned Lois on _that_ much, she’d have done things a little differently. But it wasn’t too late to start. She took a step forward, placing a boot right between Lois’ knees.  
“Do you really think you should keep that skirt on?” she said.  
“Sorry,” Lois mumbled and started taking it off, moving as little as she could while doing so. It took longer than if she’d just sat up a bit, but on the other hand it was a lot more fun to watch. When she was naked, she leaned back on her elbows and looked up at Kalinda. She seemed both nervous and excited. Kalinda stepped forward, putting one foot on each side of Lois’ chest.  
“Now doesn’t that feel better?” she said.  
Lois nodded, her gaze fixed between Kalinda’s legs.  
“If you spread your legs real wide,” Kalinda said, “I’m sure Sarah here will be more than happy to get her face between them.”  
“Oh yes,” Sarah said from behind her.  
Moments later, she heard movement and just a few seconds after that Lois closed her eyes and let her head fall back, an expression of bliss on her face. Kalinda smiled. It didn’t take very much longer before Lois lay down properly, her hands stroking Kalinda’s booted calves. Which looked nice enough, but Kalinda would rather feel her touch. As gracefully as she could manage, she knelt down, carefully placing her crotch over Lois’ mouth. She didn’t need to give any command, as soon as she was close enough a warm, wet tongue touched her. She let out a shuddering sigh of pleasure and rested her forehead against the tree in front of her. Damn, that felt good. She let her mind relax and simply enjoyed the feeling. From behind, she heard the sounds of Sarah pleasuring Lois, and from beneath she could feel Lois moan in the response. Lois’ hands rose up to squeeze Kalinda’s breasts. She wished she could reach around to do the same to Lois’, but at the same time she really didn’t want to move from where she was. So she stayed put and let Lois give her pleasure. The tension inside her was growing fast, faster than usual and faster than she’d expected. Although perhaps that was just an error in judgment. She’d been at least somewhat aroused since she’d met up with Lois and Sarah in the coffee house, and that was some time ago now. Excitement and arousal was rising fast, and she suddenly realized that she’d already lost control of it. That there was no way she could stop her climax now, no way that she could delay and draw things out. Under Lois’ surprisingly skilled ministrations, Kalinda was already in the process of exploding. Her eyes flew open, she threw her head back and a surprised shout escaped her as climax tore through her like a freight train. She shook and sobbed, ground her pussy into Lois’ face, cursed like a sailor and her vision blacked out as wave after wave of pleasure pulsed through her body. Lois’ tongue kept moving over her clitoris, keeping Kalinda’s orgasm going until it was almost painful. Finally, things subsided to the point where Kalinda could reach a hand down and push at Lois’ head.  
“Stop,” she said. “Too much. Stop.”  
Lois stopped. Kalinda took a couple of seconds to get her muscles under control, then ungracefully toppled to the side. She ended up lying on her back in the grass, staring up at the leaves above. She was panting heavily and small aftershocks still erupted inside her. In spite of herself, she was impressed. It had been a long, long time since she’d come that hard. Not since the first time she slept with Alicia, probably. She forced her reluctant body to sit up. Lois was still stretched out on her back, and Sarah was still kneeling between her spread legs, licking enthusiastically. Lois had her hands buried in Sarah’s hair. Her eyes were closed, and from the way her hips moved Kalinda guessed she was pretty close to coming. Kalinda moved forward enough to plant a sloppy kiss on Lois’ lips and not so gently grope her ample breasts. She pinched a nipple hard, and instantly felt Lois’ whole body stiffen. Her body arched, and a muffled cry came from Sarah. Kalinda turned her head, without breaking the kiss, and saw Lois’ white-knuckled grip on Sarah’s hair and the latter’s pained grimace. As Lois slowly relaxed, Kalinda broke the kiss, let go of the breast and sat up. She smiled down at Lois.  
“Feeling good?” she said.  
“Oh yeah,” Lois breathed.  
“You almost tore my hair out,” Sarah said.  
“Sorry,” Lois said. “I’ll make it up to you as soon as I can move again.”  
Kalinda suddenly had an idea. Maybe there was a way she could get some information out of the NSA agent. She got up on her hands a knees and moved far enough that she could kiss Sarah, who eagerly responded. Kalinda ran her hand down Sarah’s side and stomach, ending up just far enough down to play with Sarah’s soft, pale pubic hair. When she felt Sarah shiver, she broke the kiss.  
“I have an idea,” she said.  
“I hope it involves you two fucking me,” Sarah said.  
“It does,” Kalinda said.  
She sat down on her heels, dragging her hand along Sarah’s torso as she pulled back. She turned to Lois.  
“Are you hungry?” she said.  
“Yes,” Lois said. “And thirsty.”  
“Me too,” Kalinda said. “What about you?”  
She reached out and caressed Sarah’s nipple. Sarah’s elbow buckled, and she just barely kept herself from falling face first onto Lois.  
“Not anywhere near as much as I’m horny,” she said in between gasps.  
“Good,” Kalinda said. “Lois, what do you say that while we eat and drink some, we take turns keeping Sarah here as horny as possible until we get back to your place in town and a proper bed?”  
Lois laughed.  
“I think I like that idea,” she said.  
“Now wait a moment!” Sarah said.  
Kalinda pushed her over on her back, then quickly bent down and sucked on the nipple she hadn’t just played with. Sarah arched her back, pushing her breast into Kalinda’s mouth.  
“Fuck,” she said. “You two are evil.”  
Lois descended on the nipple not occupied by Kalinda. One of her hands found its way in between Sarah’s legs, which were spread as far apart as they could go.  
Sarah made a desperate mewling sound. Kalinda let go and smiled at her.  
“Just imagine how hard you’ll come once we let you,” she said. “Now what do you want to eat?”  
Sarah whimpered.

* * *

Lois drove on the way back. Having grown up in Smallville, she knew the roads far better than either of the other two, and knew which shortcuts were worth using and which to avoid. Also, numerous disasters over the years had forced her to learn how to get from the center of Smallville out to the Kent farm, or vice versa, in as little time as possible.  
“Be good,” Kalinda said from the back seat. “No touching yourself, or I’ll have to tie your hands.”  
Sarah groaned something unintelligible. It took all the willpower Lois had not to turn and look. The last time she’d glanced back, she’d looked straight down Sarah’s skirt at Kalinda’s finger sliding slowly in and out of her vagina. Which was not very good for road safety, particularly considering the speed she was driving at. She wanted to get home to her apartment and her bed as soon as humanly possible.  
“Maybe I’d better tie you up anyway,” Kalinda said. “You don’t mind, do you? Maybe you even like it that way? Does the thought of being under my control, helpless to prevent me from living out my darkest desires on your hot, hot body turn you on?”  
The thought sure was turning _Lois_ on. She swallowed and tried to concentrate on the road. She hadn’t even known she had a submissive streak until Tess proved it to her beyond a shadow of a doubt. Even so, she still hadn’t entirely accepted it. It still made her feel like it was something she shouldn’t do, something to be ashamed of. A shame which _also_ turned her on.  
“Hey, Lois,” Kalinda shouted. “You don’t happen to have something I can use to tie Sarah’s hands with, do you?”  
For a few seconds she couldn’t decide if she should answer truthfully or not. She did, of course, have something, since Tess insisted she always be ready. The question was if Tess would think it was OK for someone else to use it or not. Maybe she’d get upset if she found out. In which case she might punish Lois for allowing it.  
“Large outside pocket on my handbag,” she shouted back at Kalinda.  
She glanced at the rear view mirror and saw Kalinda hold Sarah’s wrists together with one hand and dig through Lois’ handbag with the other. Again, she forced her attention back to the road. She took a curve at dangerously high speed, and almost flew over a small hill. It wasn’t much further to go.  
Kalinda stuck her head up close to Lois’.  
“Steel-reinforced leather cuffs?” she said. “That’s expensive stuff. Not what you buy if you just want to play around a little with your girlfriend.”  
“It was a gift,” Lois said.  
She didn’t sound convincing even to herself.  
“Of course,” Kalinda said.  
She sat back. When Lois glanced in the mirror again, she saw Kalinda kiss Sarah while she slid one hand inside her dress to fondle a breast.  
She pushed the gas pedal down a little harder. Not far to go now.

While Lois fumbled out her keys and unlocked the apartment door, Kalinda slowly stroked the incredibly smooth skin on the inside of Sarah’s thigh. Sarah, her arms cuffed behind her back and covered with Kalinda’s jacket, tried to move her hips to get pressure on her pussy somehow. Kalinda carefully made sure she didn’t succeed. She wanted the spy as far out of her skull with arousal and frustration as possible.  
Lois opened the door, picked up the basket with the surviving wine bottles and walked inside. Kalinda guided Sarah through the door, and unceremoniously dropped the jacket on the floor. Sarah headed for the bed on her own initiative.  
“Wait,” Kalinda said, grabbing her by the chain between the wrist cuffs. “Your clothes.”  
Sarah stopped.  
“What about them?” she said.  
Kalinda pushed her dress down until it fell to the ground.  
“That,” she said.  
Unable to stop herself, and, to be fair, not particularly willing to either, she squeezed Sarah’s buttocks. Sarah pushed back, and moments later they were kissing over Sarah’s shoulder.  
“Oh God,” Lois said. “I so hope Chloe won’t come home early.”  
She was standing a few steps away, wine glass in hand and naked.  
Kalinda smiled at her.  
“Do you think you can tie this one to the bed while I undress?” she said.  
“My pleasure,” Lois said.  
“Um,” Sarah said. “Tied up still? Why?”  
Kalinda reached around the spy, put her hands on her breasts and ran her thumbs over the nipples. A drawn-out gasp escaped Sarah.  
“Because it’s fun,” Kalinda said. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it worth it for you.”  
She could see Sarah hesitate, and then accept it.  
“OK,” she said. “But you’d better make me come soon, or I’ll explode.”  
“Good,” Kalinda said and slapped Sarah’s ass. “Off you go.”  
Sarah stumbled to the bed and half lay down, half fell onto it. Lois came after, pushed her down onto her front and sat down straddling Sarah’s ass.  
“Stay,” she said, and begun undoing the chain between the wrist cuffs.  
It was a short chain, just a couple of links, fastened to the cuffs themselves with carabiners. Impossible to reach for the person wearing them, but easy enough to undo for anyone else.  
“You have a pair for her legs too, right?” Kalinda said.  
“Of course,” Lois said. “I’ll get them once I’m done with her arms.”  
“Great,” Kalinda said.  
Watching carefully that both women were occupied enough on the bed, she fished a pill out of her pocket and dropped it into Lois’ wine glass. As much as she’d had to drink, and given the sex they’d had, Lois shouldn’t find it suspicious when she fell asleep in the middle of things. Or, rather, she wouldn’t find it suspicious when she woke up.  
“Turn over,” Lois said.  
On the bed, Sarah did as she was told. Lois stretched out Sarah’s arms above her head, and fastened the leather cuffs by their carabiners to eyebolts fastened to the corners of the bed frame. Once that was done, she got another pair of cuffs from a box under the bed. Kalinda couldn’t see what else was in the box, but she’d bet the contents were interesting. She undressed quickly and efficiently, and got a glass of wine for herself.  
“Here,” she said a little later, holding out the prepared glass toward Lois.  
Lois had fastened Sarah’s ankles to another pair of eyebolts, these sunk into the sides of the bed frame a suitable distance from the top of the bed. It left Sarah’s legs slightly bent and spread wide, both of which facilitated ease of access to her pussy. Lois took the glass and drank almost half of it in one go.  
“Thanks,” she said.  
“That’s quite a prepared bed you have,” Kalinda said. “It’s seen a lot of use, I suppose?”  
Sarah was pulling on her restraints, testing their strength. Lois was stroking her skin here and there with the hand she didn’t hold her wine glass with. She looked up, appearing embarrassed. Which was mildly amazing, considering the circumstances.  
“The bolts and stuff is pretty new, actually,” she said.  
“Well, then,” Kalinda said. “Let’s make sure it works.”  
She put her glass on the bedside table, knelt down between Sarah’s legs, bent forward and rapidly ran her tongue along Sarah’s vulva.  
“Fuck!” Sarah screamed, her entire body tensing up like steel wire for a few seconds before she relaxed again with a whimper.  
“Seems sturdy enough,” Kalinda said.  
She looked at Lois, looking for signs of drowsiness. Which could be clearly seen.  
“Lois, why don’t you kiss her while I have some fun down here?” she said.  
“Ok,” Lois said.  
She lay down next to Sarah, draped an arm over her chest and gently kissed her. Kalinda put her hand to Sarah’s sex and slowly, slowly slid a single slender finger inside her. Sarah was moaning and whimpering and if not for Lois’ lips impeding her speech she might have been begging. Kalinda kept moving her finger very slowly, as slowly as she could without actually stopping. Sarah’s hips were twitching uncontrollably.  
Lois head slid to the mattress, her eyes closed and her breath slow and even. Nicely asleep. Kalinda pulled her finger out and moved forward until she was standing on her hands and knees over the tied-down NSA agent. Sarah looked up at her, a note of worry suddenly apparent in her expression. Kalinda lowered herself until her nipples just touched Sarah’s, then slowly moved forward, dragging them over Sarah’s hypersensitive skin until her mouth was right next to Sarah’s ear. She reached down with a hand and ever so gently put her finger on Sarah’s clitoris, making sure to put only just enough pressure on it to make its presence clear.  
“Tell me what the NSA wants with Lois Lane and I’ll let you come,” she whispered in Sarah’s ear.

It took several seconds before the meaning of the whispered phrase sank into Sarah’s lust-fogged mind. When it did, her eyes flew open and she turned her head to look at Kalinda. Who simply smiled at her and pressed a little harder on Sarah’s clitoris. Pleasure exploded through Sarah’s body. Again. She’d been on the edge of orgasm for so long, so many _hours_ , that she was losing the ability to tell the difference between pleasure and pain. All she could think about was that it wasn’t enough, that she needed _more_. More touching, harder touching, something rigid pushing inside her and oh if that finger could just press a little more firmly right there…  
She felt her own hips twitch involuntarily, seeking the stimulation she wasn’t getting.  
“Just tell me,” Kalinda whispered. “Tell me, and you’ll get what you need.”  
Sarah heard herself _whimper_. She didn’t make that kind of sound. She was a tough, competent field agent. She could take care of herself. Face anything, stand up to anything. Endure anything. Except, she suddenly feared, this.  
Kalinda’s finger slid along Sarah’s vulva at the same time as her mouth sucked on a nipple. Again, a bolt of pleasure shot through her. Again, almost but not quite enough to push her over the edge.  
“Or I can just leave,” Kalinda whispered. “If you don’t like this. You got here willingly enough, but maybe you changed your mind. Maybe I should. Just. Stop. Touching. You.”  
Each of the final words were accompanied by a kiss or a touch at a sensitive place. Which was, at the moment, just about anywhere on Sarah’s body. Right then, she could probably have come from having her earlobe sucked.  
“Just tell me,” Kalinda whispered. “All you have to do is ask me to stop, and I’ll leave you here for a while to calm down, then let you go.”  
Sarah knew she should, but she just couldn’t get the words out. Her entire body and most of her mind summarily overrode the voice of reason inside her. Every fibre of her being needed that orgasm, and wasn’t going to be denied by some silly scruples.  
“Or do you want me to make you come?” Kalinda whispered. “Do you want my fingers inside you? Maybe you want my whole hand up your lovely snatch?”  
“Yes,” Sarah found herself gasping. “God, yes. Please.”  
“Then tell me,” Kalinda whispered. “Why are you here? What does the NSA want with a simple journalist? Tell me, and you’ll get what you need.”  
“Please,” Sarah moaned. “Please.”  
“Tell me, and I will. No one has to know. Just me.”  
Again, the evil finger pressed at her clitoris just a little to briefly to get her off. Her entire body tensed as the pleasure shock swept through her, leaving burning need in its wake.  
“She has data,” Sarah found herself saying. “Technology data from Luthorcorp. Tess Mercer hid some of it on a USB drive Lois has. We don’t know why. But we need it. Luthorcorp can’t have better tech than we have.”  
“Better technology than you have?” Kalinda asked.  
Sarah nodded.  
“Yes,” she gasped. “We don’t know how.”  
“And the boss of Luthorcorp stashed it with Lois Lane?”  
“Yes!” Sarah almost shouted. “Please! I told you!”  
“Yes, you did, didn’t you?” Kalinda said.  
She started moving down Sarah’s naked body, kissing and fondling everything on the way. Every touch, every caress set off fires of delight inside Sarah. Her need rose even higher as Kalinda’s sweet lips moved closer and closer to her sex… and veered to the side. Sarah let out a sound that was somehow both a moan and a shout.  
“Just a moment,” Kalinda said. “You’ve waited this long, you can wait a few seconds more.”  
“No,” Sarah gasped. “No more. Please.”  
“Just a little more…”  
Sarah felt Kalinda’s fingers probing the folds of her sex, sliding over smooth flesh, and then gather at her opening.  
“Ready?” Kalinda asked.  
That instantly took the place as the stupidest damn question Sarah had heard in her entire life.  
“YES!” she screamed.  
The fingers forced their way inside her. _All_ of them. Which normally would have just been painful, but right then Sarah was ready for absolutely anything that could get her off. Which this could. Every single nerve around her vaginal opening and, as the fingers moved forward, more and more of the ones inside were screaming ecstasy at her. She felt the orgasm rise and rise and rise inside her, until she thought she’d explode. Kalinda forced her way further and further inside her, and Sarah had started to wonder how long the woman’s fingers really were when she realized that she had Kalinda’s whole hand inside her. Which began to move back and forth at the same moment as Kalinda’s lips engulfed Sarah’s clitoris and sucked _hard_.  
The pleasure spiked and exploded. A wordless scream forced its way out of her throat, and she pulled with all the muscle she had on the restraints holding her to the bed. When the feeling began to die down, Kalinda moved her hand again, and roughly licked Sarah’s most sensitive spot again, and the ecstasy set off again. The hand that wasn’t fucking Sarah was mauling her tits, and it felt so damn good it brought tears to her eyes.  
She totally lost track of how long it went on. It could have been seconds or hours, for all that she knew. But finally all the lust inside her burned out, and Kalinda’s ministrations between her legs started feeling more like discomfort than delight.  
“Stop,” she croaked. “Please stop.”  
Kalinda stopped. Her mouth detached from Sarah’s sex, and the hand on Sarah’s breast vanished. The one in her pussy stayed, but stopped. Sarah herself felt like she’d spent two days doing intense martial arts training. Like a wrung-out dishrag, except really good. The hand inside her slowly pulled out, a feeling that she couldn’t tell if she liked or not.  
“Are you OK?”  
Kalinda’s face appeared above Sarah’s own. She nodded. She felt more than just OK, she felt wonderful.  
“Fantastic,” she said.  
“Good,” Kalinda said, as she bent down and kissed Sarah.  
It was a slow, tender kiss. Languid, was the word that stalked into Sarah’s mind. The kiss was languid. And the feeling of Kalinda’s naked body weighing down on her own was fantastic. Although it would’ve been better if she could embrace her unexpected lover.  
“Um, could you let my arms loose?” she said during a breath break in the kissing.  
“Ah,” Kalinda said.  
“Ah?” Sarah said.  
Kalinda sighed and sat up.  
“I think I should be gone from here by the time you’re let loose,” she said.  
“What?” Sarah said.  
“I just don’t get along with spies,” Kalinda said. “They have this nasty habit of taking you prisoner and shipping you off to Afghanistan to be tortured. You know, stuff like that.”  
“We don’t…” Sarah started protesting, but a look from Kalinda silenced her.  
“I’m guessing that one way or the other, me leaving here will get your team to come investigate,” Kalinda said. “If not, the pill I gave Lois should wear off in an hour or two. Once it does, you should be able to wake her up, so she can free you.”  
Kalinda got up from the bed and started putting her clothes on.  
“You’re leaving me like this?” Sarah said.  
Kalinda nodded at her.  
Sarah tried to get upset, but couldn’t. Even if Sarah herself didn’t particularly mind what Kalinda had done, and even liked most of it _a lot_ , she knew full well that her superiors wouldn’t be so lenient.  
“Kalinda?” she said.  
Kalinda pulled on her jacket and looked quizzically at Sarah.  
“The way I’ll report it, we just had sex,” Sarah said. “Nothing more.”  
She licked her lips.  
“Really awesome sex,” she added. “If you see me again in the future, it’ll be because I want more.”  
Kalinda looked at her. A lopsided little smile graced her lips.  
“I wish I could believe you,” she said.  
“I understand,” Sarah said. “Believe me, I understand. I just wanted it said.”  
Kalinda kept looking at her. After a little while, it made Sarah feel uncomfortable. Particularly since she was still naked and tied spread-eagle to the bed.  
“What?” she said.  
Kalinda seemed to come to a decision. She walked up to the head of the bed, where she swiftly and efficiently undid the carabiner holding Sarah’s left hand to the bed.  
“The USB stick is in Lois’ handbag,” she said. “If you really do want to meet, don’t show up. Call this number and follow the instructions.”  
She took a calling card from a jacket pocket and carefully placed it between Sarah’s breasts. Her smile turned a little warmer.  
“I promise you’ll like them,” she said.  
She turned and left before Sarah could think of a response.

* * *

The image of General Beckman flickered to life on the large monitor in front of the Castle conference table. As usual, her expression was stern as she looked down at her team. Sarah, Casey and Morgan were sitting at the table, while Chuck sat at a terminal to its side, rapidly typing on its keyboard.  
“Well?” Beckman said.  
“Agent Walker successfully retrieved the data, General,” Casey said. “Agent Bartowski is currently trying to decrypt it.”  
“Excellent,” Beckman said. “So everything went smoothly, then?”  
Casey and Morgan glanced at Sarah, who kept her gaze at the blank table in front of her.  
She hadn’t had a chance to take a shower since they got back. It felt like there was still some maple syrup on her left breast. Her blouse kept sticking to it when she moved. Her long-sleeved blouse, to cover the bruises on her wrists left by the cuffs when Kalinda had finally made her come and she pulled on them with her full strength. God, what an orgasm that had been. She got wet just thinking about it.  
“More or less,” Morgan said.  
“Explain the ‘less’,” Beckman said.  
“Agent Walker got delayed while undercover,” Casey said. “The mission took a few hours longer than intended.”  
“Where, if I understand correctly, ‘a few’ translates to ‘about eighteen’,” Beckman said.  
“Yes, General,” Casey said.  
“It’s my fault, General,” Sarah said. “I judged that it would look suspicious if I left during the night, so I stayed with the target and had breakfast. Retaining a good relationship with the target seemed worth a few hours of time.”  
She didn’t mention that breakfast had been eaten in bed, and involved her and Lois pouring syrup on each other and then licking it off. Among other things.  
“I see,” Beckman said. “I guess that makes sense. Did you get anything more than the encrypted data? Something the target said or did?”  
“No, General,” Sarah said. “As far as I could tell, she’s just a journalist. She didn’t even seem to know the data was in her possession.”  
“Let’s hope there’s something good in the data, then,” the General said. “How is it going, agent Bartowski?”  
“Just a moment, General,” Chuck said.  
The terminal in front of him chimed.  
“There!” he said. “Let’s see what’s on this little baddie…”  
He put his hands back on the keyboard, but before he’d had time to press a single key the monitor went black.  
“What?” Chuck said.  
“Chuck?” Sarah said. “What’s wrong?”  
He hit a few keys, to no effect.  
“I don’t know,” he said. “It just went…”  
Two more monitors in the room went out.  
“Bartowski!” Casey said very loudly.  
All the code locks on the doors went red and started beeping.  
“Castle?” General Beckman said from her monitor. “What’s happening? You’re breaking up.”  
Around the room, more and more monitors went out at an increasing pace.  
“Nonononono,” Chuck said.  
He stopped typing, dove under the table and started pulling out cables by the handful. An alarm began wailing in the distance. The picture of General Beckman broke up into multi-colored blocky static.  
“Er, Chuck,” Morgan said, pointing at the large monitor. “Is that doing what I think it’s doing?”  
Chuck looked up, desperation in his eyes.  
“I sure hope not,” he said.  
“Grimes, what do you think it’s doing?” Casey growled.  
“Piggybacking on the video stream,” Morgan said. “Which is kind of neat, in a way. Unless it’s your video stream. Which it is. Ours, I mean. So not at all neat, really. More… disastrous.”  
The room went black, except for the dim red light from the code locks. The hum from the air conditioning faded into silence, leaving only the distant siren to be heard.  
“What,” Casey said through clenched teeth, “Just. Happened.”  
Chuck sighed.  
“We were set up,” he said. “The data was a viciously virulent virus. Which would only attack someone who could crack the encryption. Meaning, basically, us.”  
“So when you said it was piggybacking on the video stream,” Sarah said, “you meant that it was transmitting itself to NSA headquarters?”  
Chuck smiled nervously.  
“I was probably wrong about that,” he said. “I hope.”  
“No way, man,” Morgan said. “You heard what Beckman said about us breaking up, and then the visual artifacts on our end. That was totally the virus messing with the video encoding.”  
“I thought Castle had defenses against this sort of thing?” Casey said.  
“It does,” Chuck said.  
“So how did it take us out in less than ten seconds?”  
“Because whoever designed it was better than us.”  
Morgan nodded.  
“Well, the reason we went after the data in the first place was that they supposedly had better technology than we do,” he said. “So on the upside, now we _know_ that they do.”  
Casey and Chuck both glared at him. The three men started arguing about whose fault everything was, and who should’ve known better when, and what to do now. Sarah sighed deeply and sank deeper into her chair. It didn’t seem likely she’d get a shower any time soon.  
When she got out, she was so going to call the number Kalinda had left her.

* * *

Alicia Florrick was sitting on a bench outside the courtroom, reading what little information they had in the Luthorcorp case for the thousandth time, when her phone rang. With a movement so familiar that it was nearly unconscious, she tapped the answer button and raised the phone to her ear.  
“Alicia Florrick,” she said.  
“Hi,” she heard Kalinda’s dusky voice say.  
A smile broke out on her tired face.  
“Kalinda,” she said. “How nice to hear your voice.”  
“Likewise,” Kalinda said. “Although I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you.”  
“You fell in love with your target and you’re leaving me for her?”  
“Not this time,” Kalinda said. “Although she was really good-looking, and the sex was great.”  
Alicia felt herself start to flush a little. She usually did when Kalinda told her about her conquests. The courthouse really was not the right place for that sort of thing.  
“I’m at court,” she said. “The Luthorcorp trial will start in a few minutes.”  
“There was an NSA agent there too,” Kalinda said. “Also very hot. Blonde, athletic. Looked awesome tied naked to the bed.”  
Alicia swallowed.  
“Kalinda,” she said. “The news?”  
“I gave her my number when I left,” Kalinda said. “I think she may call. If she does, I’ll send her around to please you first. She’d look awesome between your legs eating you out.”  
“Kalinda!”  
A soft chuckle came through the phone.  
“The whole thing was a setup,” Kalinda said. “There were no files.”  
“What?” Alicia said. “But we heard Mercer say…”  
“Yeah,” Kalinda interrupted. “That’d be the ‘set up’ part. There was a USB stick, with files on it. Only it was a trap.”  
“A trap?” Alicia said. “How? Are you OK?”  
She got up from the bench and started pacing. This did not sound good.  
“I’m fine,” Kalinda said. “Not that kind of trap. It was a virus. A very destructive one.”  
“God,” Alicia said. “What happened? How did you figure it out?”  
“It was too easy,” Kalinda said. “Not just getting the USB stick, although that stank from the get-go. I mean, who gives secret files to their girlfriend to keep in her purse?”  
“Well, it might not be a place an ordinary commercial spy would look.”  
“Maybe,” Kalinda admitted. “But when you also have the encryption key for the data be the girlfriend’s name?”  
“What?” Alicia said. “That sounds crazy.”  
“Yeah,” Kalinda said. “It does, doesn’t it?”  
Alicia could hear car noises through the phone. She stifled an impulse to ask Kalinda if she was using her hands-free.  
“I took a look at the stick’s contents,” Kalinda said, “and saw that it was encrypted in a way I couldn’t crack on my laptop. Or, realistically, at all. So I hand-tried a few obvious choices before giving up, just because. And one of them worked.”  
There was a pause.  
“Yes?” Alicia said when she couldn’t stand waiting any more.  
“And I got suspicious, so I fired up a network-less virtual machine before I tried looking at the content,” Kalinda said. “Good thing I did, too, because it wiped the virtual machine clean in way under a millisecond.”  
“That’s fast?” Alicia asked.  
“It’s crazy fast,” Kalinda said. “Too fast to be possible. It’s like they got the virus from outer space or something.”  
“I’m pretty sure that’s not the case,” Alicia said. “Tess Mercer may be a heartless bitch, but she’s still human.”  
“I guess,” Kalinda said. “Anyway, from a case point of view this entire trip was a wash. We don’t have anything that we didn’t have before. To be honest, it feels like we got sent on a wild goose chase to keep us from finding anything real.”  
“All right,” Alicia said. “I’ll talk to Diane and we’ll see what we do. See you tonight?”  
“I don’t…” Kalinda started saying.  
“Zach and Grace are at Peter’s,” Alicia interrupted.  
There was a pause.  
“Seven sound good?” Kalinda said.  
“Sure,” Alicia said. “Bring pizza.”  
“Ok,” Kalinda said. “Bye.”  
“Bye,” Alicia said.  
She put her phone back in her pocket and sighed. Well, it had been kind of a long shot. Possibly they could still negotiate a settlement. Although if Mercer had deliberately misled them, that would be hard. She sighed again. She wasn’t looking forward to breaking this to Diane.

* * *

“Morning, miss Lane,” someone she didn’t remember the name of said in the elevator. “Have a nice weekend?”  
She smiled at him.  
“Yes,” she said. “Great, actually.”  
It really had been. She had no idea what quirk of the Universe made two gorgeous women decide to seduce her on the same weekend, but she sure liked the result. Meaningless no-strings one-time-only great sex was still great sex. Without emotional complexities. Her only regret was that she hadn’t taken a picture of Sarah lit by the morning sun with maple syrup dripping from her breasts. That had truly been a sight for the ages. She sat down at her desk and fired up the computer. There was a bunch of emails, of course. One of which said “See me in my office ASAP” and was signed by Tess.

Tess looked up when Lois walked into her office. She was sitting behind her desk, watching something on her computer.  
“Close the door, lock it and sit down,” she said.  
“And a good morning to you too,” Lois said while she did as she was told.  
“So,” Tess said when the door was closed and locked and Lois sitting in the visitor’s chair. “Did you have a good weekend?”  
“Yes,” Lois said, “I did.”  
She frowned. It wasn’t like Tess to start with pleasantries like that.  
“Why?” she asked.  
Tess smiled at her.  
“Any unexpected visitors?”  
Lois’ heart fell. So it hadn’t been good luck, then. Or anything at all to do with herself, probably. Just a scheme of Tess’. Well, at least the sex had still been awesome. She tried to keep the disappointment out of her face.  
“Maybe,” she said. “Why do you ask?”  
“I may have made sure to be overheard saying things that might have pointed certain people in your direction,” Tess said.  
“I see,” Lois said. “Did you have a reason, or was it just your idea of fun?”  
“I needed some people’s investigative resources tied up over the weekend to make sure I won a lawsuit,” Tess said.  
She got up and walked around the desk to stand behind Lois. She stroked Lois’ face.  
“And you, darling,” she said, “are by far the best distraction I know of.”  
Lois twisted around in the chair so she could look Tess in the eyes.  
“You used me!” she said.  
Tess’ eyebrows rose.  
“That’s not news, Lois,” she said.  
Her hands moved down, stroking her neck, moving over her clavicles and stopping with her fingertips at the tops of Lois’ breasts.  
“I do that all the time, dear,” she said. “Mostly for my own pleasure, true, but I still do. If I had flat-out told you to fuck that woman, you would have, wouldn’t you?”  
She would have. She knew that. It made it harder to protest.  
“There were two of them,” she said.  
“Really?” Tess said. “I only expected one. That in-house investigator, Kalinda. She’s rather pretty. I thought you’d like her. And you did have all the choice in the world, sweetie. If you slept with her… I mean, them, it was only because you wanted to.”  
Also true. And she had liked both Kalinda and Sarah enough to set up a dates with them.  
“Anyway, I am pleased with you,” Tess said. “Even when you had no idea it was my wish, you performed excellently. You’ve earned a reward.”  
Reward. That usually meant Tess bringing her to orgasm without much in the way of demands or suffering. Just enough to get her really aroused. Lois licked her lips.  
“Reward?” she said. “Now?”  
Tess gave her a brief kiss.  
“You get to choose,” she said. “Either right now, right here or tonight, in my bedroom. The first means you’ll have to keep silent, so your colleagues don’t hear you. The second means waiting.”  
While she spoke her hand had made its way into Lois’ bra cup, where it was pinching her nipple just a little too hard to be entirely comfortable.  
Lois closed her eyes and made her choice.


End file.
